Australian airline Qantas disclosed that it detected a cyberattack on Monday after risk actors gained entry to a third-party platform containing buyer knowledge.
Qantas is Australia’s largest airline, working home and worldwide flights throughout six continents and using round 24,000 folks.
In a press launch issued Monday night time, the airline states that the assault has been contained, however a “vital” quantity of knowledge is believed to have been stolen. The breach started after a risk actor focused a Qantas name centre and gained entry to a third-party buyer servicing platform.
“On Monday, we detected uncommon exercise on a 3rd celebration platform utilized by a Qantas airline contact centre. We then took speedy steps and contained the system. We will affirm all Qantas programs stay safe,” Qantas said.
“There are 6 million clients which have service information on this platform. We’re persevering with to research the proportion of the information that has been stolen, although we count on it is going to be vital. An preliminary overview has confirmed the information consists of some clients’ names, electronic mail addresses, cellphone numbers, start dates and frequent flyer numbers.”
Qantas says no bank card or private monetary info was uncovered, and frequent flyer account passwords, PINs, and login particulars weren’t impacted.
After detecting the breach, Qantas says it notified the Australian Cyber Safety Centre, the Workplace of the Australian Data Commissioner, and the Australian Federal Police. It is unclear if exterior cybersecurity consultants are helping with the investigation.
Scattered Spider assaults goal aviation companies
This assault comes as cybersecurity companies warn that hackers generally known as “Scattered Spider” have begun concentrating on the aviation and transportation industries.
Whereas it’s unclear if this group is behind the Qantas assault, BleepingComputer has discovered the incident shares similarities with different current assaults by the risk actors.
Scattered Spider (additionally tracked as 0ktapus, UNC3944Scatter Swine, Starfraud, and Muddled Libra) is a bunch of risk actors identified for his or her conducting social engineering and identity-based assaults towards organizations worldwide, generally utilizing phishing, SIM swapping, MFA bombing, and assist desk cellphone calls to achieve entry to worker credentials.
In September 2023, they escalated their assaults by breaching MGM Resorts and encrypting over 100 VMware ESXi hypervisors utilizing BlackCat ransomware after gaining entry by impersonating an worker. They’ve additionally partnered with different ransomware operations, reminiscent of RansomHubQilin, and DragonForce. Different organizations focused by Scattered Spider embrace Twilio, Coinbase, DoorDash, Caesars, MailChimp, Riot Video games, and Reddit.
After not too long ago specializing in retail and insurance coverage corporations, cybersecurity companies warned on Friday that Scattered Spider had shifted its consideration to aviation, with current assaults on Hawaiian Airways and WestJet believed to be linked to the risk actors.
BleepingComputer has discovered that within the WestJet breach, risk actors exploited a self-service password reset to achieve entry to an worker’s account, which was then used to breach the community.
The risk actors have been using a sector-by-sector method to their assaults, and it’s unclear if they’re accomplished with the aviation sector and what trade might be focused subsequent.
Organizations defending towards this sort of risk ought to begin by gaining full visibility throughout the whole infrastructure, identification programs, and important administration providers.
This consists of securing self-service password reset platforms, assist desks, and third-party identification distributors, which have turn into widespread targets of those risk actors.
Each Google Menace Intelligence Group (GTIG) and Palo Alto Networks have launched guides on hardening defenses towards the identified “Scattered Spider” techniques, which admins ought to familiarize themselves with.
Different current cyberattacks believed to be related to Scattered Spider embrace M&S, Co-op, Erie Insurance coverage, and Aflac.
Whereas cloud assaults could also be rising extra refined, attackers nonetheless succeed with surprisingly easy methods.
Drawing from Wiz’s detections throughout hundreds of organizations, this report reveals 8 key methods utilized by cloud-fluent risk actors.
